The Provincial PESO met with International Labor Organization (ILO) project coordinator in June for a potential partnership in the setting up the Iloilo Province Migrant Resource Center (MRC).
ILO Safe and Fair Programme national project coordinator Rex Marlo Varona discussed about the regional program that is part of the global, multi-year EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls.
Safe and Fair is implemented in the ten ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, through a partnership between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Safe and Fair – Philippines focuses on women Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), both land and sea-based, at all stages of labour migration (pre-migration, transit, onsite, return). It is implemented at the national and local levels in the Philippines.
The central objective of the program is to make labor migration safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region where women migrant workers are better protected by gender-sensitive labor migration governance frameworks, where women are less vulnerable to violence and trafficking and benefit from coordinated responsive quality services, and where data, knowledge and attitudes on the rights and contributions of women migrant workers are improved through establishment of gender-responsive provincial-level MRC.
The potential partnership is in line with the resolution of the Province of Iloilo-chaired Regional Sub-Committee on International Migration and Development (SCIMD) 6 to adopt the framework and operational mechanics and tools of the OFW Reintegration Advisor and to establish migrant resource centers.
The proposal is also seen to complement the current efforts of the Iloilo Provincial Government to establish its own Overseas Filipinos Migration and Development Center (OFMDC) thru a proposed ordinance of Senior Board Member Rolando Distura. / Jayrel Encontro, PESO Iloilo Province